Post-Conflict Governance

Citation:

Horst, Cindy. 2017. "Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda? Somali Debates on Women's Public Roles and Political Participation." Journal of Eastern African Studies 11 (3): 389-407.

Author: Cindy Horst

Abstract:

In conflict and post-conflict settings, the international community operates with the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda supporting gender equality. During and after war, gender roles are often deeply contested as part of larger societal transformations and uncertainties. In Somalia since the 1960s, gender identities and roles have undergone substantial changes, influenced by contemporary political systems, the women’s movement, civil war and religious transformations. The international community’s role in these societal transformations should not be over-estimated. Life history research with Somali women shows that debates on women’s roles in the public sphere are taking place irrespective of the international agenda. Somali women have, at least since the 1960s, held civil-political leadership positions, despite substantial disagreements on the public role of women in Somalia. Furthermore, the “international”and “local” are difficult to disentangle. The Somali female elite have often spent years abroad and introduced new gender perspectives from places as divergent as Egypt, Russia and the United States. Global cultural and religious trends are influencing post-war Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland. In this complex socio- cultural landscape, the international WPS agenda can support –but also risk delegitimizing – Somali processes and perspectives. The article illustrates the gap that exists between global norms and local realities by focusing on Somali discourse on women’s public roles and political participation.

Keywords: Gender, Somalia, women, civil war, social change, diaspora, statebuilding, nation-building, peace, security

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace and Security, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Somalia

Year: 2017

Citation:

Villellas Ariño, María. 2010. "The Participation of Women in Peace Processes. The Other Tables." Barcelona: Institut Catalá Internacional per la Pau.

Author: María Villellas Ariño

Abstract:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gender Roles, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Sri Lanka, United Kingdom

Year: 2010

Citation:

Goetz, Anne Marie, and Rob Jenkins. 2016. "Agency and Accountability: Promoting Women's Participation in Peacebuilding." Feminist Economics 22 (1): 211-36.

Authors: Anne Marie Goetz, Rob Jenkins

Abstract:

This contribution reviews international policy and practices to engage women in formal peace talks, post-conflict elections, and economic recovery, and finds a combination of factors contributing to poor performance in promoting women's agency. The fact that the privileged category for post-conflict decisions are those groups capable of acting as “spoilers” has tended to exclude women's groups from the categories considered most important to involve in decision making. Exacerbating this exclusion is the reluctance of international decision makers to encourage affirmative action measures in these contexts. This carries through to the minimal-state approach to economic recovery efforts. Provisions are needed to foster and invite women's voice in decision making, and build more active-state approaches to women's livelihood recovery. 

Keywords: affirmative action, agency, community, development, discrimination, interdisciplinary

Topics: Economies, Governance, Elections, Post-Conflict Governance, Livelihoods, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Year: 2016

Citation:

Badayos-Jover, Mary Barby P. 2012. “Mainstreaming Gender in Philippine Institutional Responses to Climate Change.” PhD diss., College of Agricultural Sciences and College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University.

Author: Mary Barby P. Badayos-Jover

Abstract:

Global climate change has become a pressing environmental, social, political and economic problem in highly vulnerable developing countries like the Philippines. A number of socio-political institutions are thus now involved in climate change initiatives in Philippine locales. While these efforts are underway, there is also a parallel growing concern that institutional responses to climate change will reinforce gender inequalities or undermine the gains made towards gender equality. This apprehension is significant in the Philippines since it has long officially subscribed to gender mainstreaming and is ranked high in gender equity indices.

The study focused on analyzing the extent to which Philippine institutional climate change efforts integrate gender concerns. Data collection made use of feminist approaches and institutional ethnography to reveal the complex ruling relations that influence practices on the ground. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with representatives from international institutions working in the Philippines, national government agencies, local government units, civil society groups and grassroots communities.

Study results highlighted that institutional and community representatives acknowledge gender as a cross cutting issue yet associate it mainly with "women's participation". Gender mainstreaming has largely remained rhetoric in the face of organizational masculinism. Hence, there is minimal integration of gender concerns in Philippine institutional climate change initiatives, despite specific policy pronouncements and years of bureaucratic gender mainstreaming. These results have implications on gender equity within climate change institutional structures and processes. However, the results also provide entry points for developing gender-sensitive, equitable, efficient and effective on-the-ground climate change initiatives in vulnerable Philippine locales.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Masculinism, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, NGOs, Political Participation Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2012

Citation:

Meertens, Donny. 2016. "Justicia de género y tierras en Colombia: Desafíos para la era del ‘pos-acuerdo’." Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 102: 89-100.

Author: Donny Meertens

Abstract:

Spanish Abstract:

Con la firma del Acuerdo de Paz entre FARC guerrilla y el Gobierno de Colombia, en Agosto de 2016, el país enfrenta un sinnúmero de desafíos para la implementación de lo pactado, no sólo en lo inmediato (desarme-desmovilización-reintegración de excombatientes y de justicia-verdad-reparación para las víctimas) sino frente a las transformaciones democráticas estipuladas para el pos-conflicto. En esta exploración reflexiono sobre la restitución de tierras como medida de reparación a víctimas y su alcance transformativo en términos de justicia de género. Colombia es el primer país en América Latina en el cual estos dos elementos, tierras y género, han sido incorporados explícitamente en un proceso de paz. Una de las conclusiones de esta reflexión es que se requiere un mayor impulso institucional a la organización de las mujeres rurales para consolidar los resultados de la restitución, articularlos a la reforma agraria pactada en el Acuerdo de Paz y contribuir así a una participación más democrática de hombres y mujeres en el desarrollo rural del pos-conflicto. 

English Abstract:

Gender and Land Justice in Colombia: Challenges for the Post-Peace Accords Era

With the signature of a Peace Accord between FARC guerrilla and the Colombian Government in August 2016, the country confronts a great number of challenges in terms of the implementation, not only of the immediate actions needed to carry out the DDR process for ex-combatants and the truth, justice and reparations measures for the victims, but also of the long-term democratic transformations agreed upon at the negotiations table. In this exploration I will reflect on the scope of land restitution as a measure of reparations, and its transformative potential in terms of gender justice. Colombia is the first country in Latin America in which these two elements, land and gender, have been explicitly included in the peace process. One of the conclusions of this reflection is that more institutional support is needed for rural women’s organizations in order to consolidate the results of a gender-just land restitution and link these to the rural reforms of the peace agenda, as a contribution to a more democratic participation of men and women in post-conflict rural development. 

Keywords: restitución de tierras, justicia, organizaciones de mujeres, proceso de paz, gênero, Gender, land restitution, justice, women's organizations, peace process

Topics: Gender, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Justice, Land Grabbing, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2016

Citation:

Ahmad, Lida, and Priscyll Anctil Avoice. 2016. “Misogyny in ‘Post-War’ Afghanistan: the Changing Frames of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.” Journal of Gender Studies 1-16.

Authors: Lida Ahmad, Priscyll Anctil Avoice

Abstract:

Although the US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was ideologically justified under the banner of democracy and women’s rights, the latter issue has been completely forgotten within the public sphere since then. As the war has officially ended in Afghanistan, new forms of misogyny and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) have arisen. The ‘post-war’ Afghan context presents an institutional normalization of violence, favouring a culture of rape and impunity. The changing frames of violence against women are widely related to the political situation of the country: while public attention is focused on peace agreements, women’s issues are relegated to banalities and depicted as ‘everyday’ news. Meanwhile, new frames of SGBV appear as body part mutilation within marriage, forced prostitution, and increasing domestic violence, partly due to the growing consumption of opium but also to the perpetuation of powerful warlords in state structures. This article draws on gender studies to analyse the current misogynist culture in ‘post-war’ Afghanistan, framing the new forms of violence induced by successive armed conflicts. It relies on interviews conducted in 2013 in Afghanistan; and on secondary sources, mostly taken from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and Human Rights Watch reports.

Keywords: Afghanistan, misogyny, sexual and gender-based violence, violence, politics, post-war, local initiatives

Topics: Armed Conflict, Domestic Violence, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, United States of America

Year: 2016

Citation:

Author: Melanie Hoewer

Abstract:

Violence against women occurs in peacetime, intensifies during wartime, and continues in the aftermath of armed conflict. Women sometimes make gains during conflict and their efforts to break the pattern of violence have led to a greater awareness of gender-based violence. However, a lack of acknowledgement of transformations in gender identity at the macro-level during peace processes may create conflict in intimate partnerships. This study brings to light the complexity of changes occurring during peace processes in a multi-level analysis of women’s perceptions and positioning towards the state, their community, and their intimate partnership. This comparative analysis of fifty-seven female activists’ narratives from Chiapas and Northern Ireland demonstrates how a one-dimensional peace process (Northern Ireland) can limit the space for addressing women’s concerns, while peace processes that transcend the ethno- national dimension of conflict (Chiapas) can open a dialogue on issues of contention in male-female relationships.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Domestic Violence, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Men, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Paramilitaries, Non-State Armed Groups, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Violence Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Mexico, United Kingdom

Year: 2013

Citation:

Johnson, Rachel E. 2014. “Women as a Sign of the New? Appointments to South Africa’s Constitutional Court since 1994.” Politics & Gender 10 (04): 595–621. doi:10.1017/S1743923X14000439.

Author: Rachel E. Johnson

Abstract:

The aim of the article is to develop our understanding of the role bodies play in processes of institutional change. It does so through developing an approach to the politics of institutional newness that highlights the way in which raced and gendered bodies can become entangled with claims to, or judgements of, “being new.” These questions are explored through South Africa's Constitutional Court, newly established as part of South Africa's transition to democracy in the 1990s and at the center of the broader claims being made about the creation of a new democratic, nonracial, and non-sexist South Africa. Focusing on judicial appointments to the Constitutional Court since 1994, the article draws attention to the ways in which historically excluded bodies, women and black men, have been included into this new space within the judiciary. It is argued that exploring the ways in which institutions lay claim to “being new” through the bodies of historically excluded groups is important for our understanding of the dynamics of institutional change being constituted.

Topics: Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Constitutions, Elections, Post-Conflict Governance, Political Participation Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2014

Citation:

Cassola, Adèle, Amy Raub, Danielle Foley, and Jody Heymann. 2014. “Where Do Women Stand? New Evidence on the Presence and Absence of Gender Equality in the World’s Constitutions.” Politics & Gender 10 (02): 200–35.

Authors: Adèle Cassola, Amy Raub, Danielle Foley, Jody Heymann

Abstract:

In countries around the world, constitutional protections of women's rights have provided a legal foundation to combat discriminatory laws, customs, and actions and a catalyst for advances in gender equality. This article draws on newly available data from 191 countries to analyze women's constitutional rights across the spheres of general equality and nondiscrimination, political participation, social and economic rights, family life, and customary and religious law. We examined how gender-specific and universal protections differed according to a constitution's year of adoption and last amendment, and identified regional patterns that persisted across all decades. Women were explicitly guaranteed general equality or nondiscrimination in 81% of constitutions, some aspect of political equality in 32%, marital equality in 27%, some aspect of work equality in 26%, and equal educational rights in 9% of constitutions. Protection of women's rights increased substantially between 1980 and 2011. As of June 2011, however, no constitution in the Middle East and North Africa guaranteed gender-specific protection in education, work, or marriage, and there were no guarantees of marital equality in South Asian constitutions. Of the constitutions that protected some aspect of gender equality, 5% stated that customary or religious laws could prevail over constitutional provisions.

Topics: Gender Equality/Inequality, Constitutions, Post-Conflict Governance, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, North Africa, Asia, Middle East, South Asia

Year: 2014

Citation:

Schild, Veronica. 2013. “Care and Punishment in Latin America: The Gendered Neoliberalization of the Chilean State.” In Neoliberalism, Interrupted: Social Change and Contested Governance in Contemporary Latin America. Stanford. CA: Stanford University Press. 

Author: Veronica Schild

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Chile

Year: 2013